


Oxidation (Set Me on Fire)

by TheScribz



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist - All Media Types
Genre: Crushes, Demisexual Edward Elric, Drabble, Introspection, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-10
Updated: 2017-01-10
Packaged: 2018-09-16 13:02:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 856
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9272933
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheScribz/pseuds/TheScribz
Summary: Ed thinks about the Colonel.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I'm still new to writing, so any and all constructive criticism is appreciated!

He had always thought of himself as some destructive, reactive element. Maybe potassium. Something that, by itself, had devastating properties, but when combined with someone like Alphonse, he stabilized. They balanced each other, his calamitous potassium to Al's chlorine, forming a potassium salt together. No need for anyone else, no messy relationships and no extra electrons floating around, yearning to attach themselves elsewhere.

Then he met Roy Mustang.

If Al had been chloride to Ed's Potassium, then Roy Mustang was oxygen. Oxygen. O2. It was a perfect comparison to Mustang, the damn thing completing itself, no need for anyone else. Placid until it decided to burn you to a crisp. Every interaction they had was abrasive and exacerbated. Eventually, of course, it became clear what, exactly, happened when potassium reacts with oxygen. When potassium oxidizes, it burns, and Ed was _burning_ in a way no one else had ever lit him up before.

Every touch, every look sent heat spiraling through Ed. Glances ignited him, words sent him blazing, and he was powerless, utterly and completely powerless, to stop it. He wasn't sure he wanted to stop, if he was being honest with himself (though, he usually wasn't).

Ed, to his dismay, found himself seeking the bastard out. Any excuse he could find, he would run into the asshole's office, mouth cocked and explosive. It was a trend, a quirk that had started years ago when he was younger and didn't understand what it meant that he felt the need to run to the Colonel every other minute for every other grievance. He had been a kid with a crush and without a clue what to do about it.  

Luckily (and thank fuck, thank truth, thank whatever heartless deity there was) no one had noticed Ed's reaction to the Colonel. Ed would be disappointed with everyone's observational skills if he wasn't so _god damned relieved_ that no one had noticed or cared about his crush. He wouldn't have been able to stand any teasing, especially from the bastard himself.

As he grew, his little world expanded. Everyone he knew took on properties of elements, bonding and separating and dancing between each other. Others were inseparable, with immutable relationships and solid foundations.

Of course, after he organized his miniature universe with theories and laws and everything in its proper fucking place, it all fell apart. Bonds could be broken. No relationship, no matter how fucking stolid or tightly packed, was indestructible. They were fucking human, and humans didn't act in the same predictable ways of chemistry.

He was beginning to realize that he wasn't an element, wasn't as tightly bound to the immovable rules of physics, but had room for error and fluctuation that only an organic, biological creature could. As more and more people entered his life, he found himself taking parts of them, giving parts of himself away, so much so that he could not imagine life without these other, third variables. It was disconcerting at first, until he realized that they strengthened rather than weakened him, that he was happier and more carefree and more of a _person_ than a cataclysmic force of nature.  

Even Roy Fucking Mustang was invaluable in his own, unnecessarily mysterious way. He was trustworthy as a person, as a friend, as a potential lover. He was confusing, sure. A plus B did not always equal C, and Ed was floundering, trying to figure out the rules of interaction, but... 

But.

But Edward enjoyed it. He enjoyed yelling at the bastard, at being challenged, at flapping the unflappable Mustang. He enjoyed the flame (heh) in his eyes and listening to him gripe about the extra paperwork Ed's adventures always caused. He enjoyed having Roy's face be the first thing he saw at central's train station after an extended trip, the quiet moments in the car before the inevitable flash of a fight, even the teasing words the Colonel would say to rile Ed up. He just fucking _enjoyed_ the bastard in a way that didn't make sense in chemistry.

Edward Elric was not potassium and Roy Mustang was not Oxygen, but damn it all if they weren't two humans inexplicably drawn to each other, and with every day they grew closer together, an infinite set of numbers that never quite reach zero, or maybe an asteroid caught in a planets gravitational pull, revolving closer and closer until it just gave up all hope and crashed into the ground below it. Maybe they were inevitable, maybe they were asymptotic, only time would tell.

"Edward," he heard, snapping out of his reverie. Roy stood in front of where he was sitting, on the steps in front of central command. Roy reached out a hand, offering silently to help him up. "Are you ready to go?"

"Yeah, bastard." Ed took his hand. Roy's hand lingered on his for a moment, rubbing a thumb on his wrist and leaving a burning trail in its wake. Ed thought he saw a flash of interest before it was quashed and his face smoothed into light amusement, dropping his hand from where they were joined.

"Let's go."


End file.
